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Copernican Model
A Sun-centered-Solar System.
His hypothesis is all planets revolve arou
nd the sun.
Sun Centered
The distinction between the Solar System a
nd the Universe was not clear until modern ti
mes
Polish priest –
astronomer Nicolaus
Copernicus (1473 –
1543) eventually
decided
to reject the
geocentric model
Copernicus' Model
In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus, a R
enaissance mathematician and ast
ronomer born in Poland, ended the
geocentric astronomy era by publi
shing his work On the Revolutions
of the Heavenly Spheres wherein
he explained that the Sun, not the
Earth, is the center of the universe
.
Copernicus' Model
In his work, he reiterated the ancient Greek
concept that the motion of spherical heaven
ly bodies is uniform, eternal, and circular. H
e then reasoned that because Earth is sphe
rical, then its motion is circular. He added t
hat the Earth has three different motions: d
aily rotation on its axis, yearly motion aroun
d the Sun, and the precession, or change in
orientation, of its axis every 26 000 years.
Copernicus' Model
He also proposed that the fixed sta
rs are immovable. Their apparent
movement is a consequence of th
e Earth’s rotation. These stars are
at immeasurable distances from th
e Earth, so there is no observable
parallax.
Copernicus' Model
By placing the Sun at the center of
the universe and the orbits of Merc
ury and Venus in between the Sun
and the Earth, Copernicus’ model
was able to account for the chang
es in the appearances of these pla
nets and their retrograde motions.
The need for epicycles in explainin
g motions was eliminated.
Heliocentric
Copernicus
ARISTARCHUS
Sun-centered Solar System had been pro
posed as early as 200 B.C by Aristarchus
of Samos(Samos is an Island now the Tu
rkey)
Actually proposed that Earth rotated on in
addition to its orbiting around the sun.
Many of his writings wee unfortunately lo
st. More importantly however, they did no
t survive long under the weight of ARIST
OTLE’s influence.
Aristarchus' Model
Aristarchus of Samos (born c. 310 B.C.),
a Greek astronomer and mathematician,
was the first to hypothesize that the Sun i
s the center of the universe. He visualize
d that the Moon orbits around a spherical
Earth which then revolves around the Su
n. He believed that the stars are very far
away from the Earth as evidenced by the
absence of stellar parallax – that is, the st
ars do not change positions relative to ea
ch other as the Earth revolves around the
Sun.
Aristarchus' Model
Through geometrical models and mathe
matical computations, he concluded that t
he Sun is 20 times farther from the Earth
than the Moon is to the Earth; the Earth i
s about three times larger than the Moon;
and the Sun is 20 times larger than the M
oon. He also reasoned out that smaller s
pheres orbit around larger ones. Thus, th
e Moon orbits around the Earth, and the
Earth orbits around the Sun.
Galileo Galilei
Proves Copernicus’ Hypothesis